What Else Could Go Wrong, UPS?

Brad sends in this screenshot of how his package is faring in the hands of UPS.

Not so hot, it looks like. Somewhere along the line, someone confused his disk drive bay with a food and/or a drug.

Brett asks, “What more can happen to this? How much worse can it get?” How about…

THIS PACKAGE IS BEING FORCE-FED TO PITBULLS WHO WILL FIGHT EACH OTHER TO THE DEATH. THEIR REMAINS WILL BE PASSED THROUGH A FAX MACHINE. A CLEARANCE AGENCY WILL HOLD THEM UNTIL THEY FEEL LIKE DRIVING BY YOUR HOUSE AND THROWING THEM IN YOUR FACE WHEN YOU PICK UP THE NEWSPAPER.

“jeebus brett, what in the world did you order? I deal with overseas packages via UPS every day and i’ve never seen scans like that before. plus it looks like it left HK, arrived in KY, and then went back to HK.”

That happens to me every time I am forced to receive something UPS. I’ve been through this at least 6 times. Yawn. Wait until they tell you that they put your item on the wrong truck, and then that they were at your door when you saw them drive right by. It gets much more interesting then.

If I was going to guess….and I am…I’m wondering if maybe something happened in HK that may have contaminated shipments from there. The fact that the package made it to Kentucky but got an “emergency” message posted from Hong Kong seems like a good clue.

We see these all the time at work, usually for Thinkpads. They either get stuck in Kentucky or Alaska for customs. Usually takes 2-3 days to clear, which is much shorter then Lenovo takes to build their highend t60s. Waiting 6 weeks for a laptop when Joe gets his Apple in 2 days sucks. but built in EVDO is really cool.

We see it with Thinkpads all the time where I work, they get held up in Kentucky or Alaska for customs. Usually takes 2-3 days which is way shorter then it takes for them to build the highend T60s. Sucks to wait 6 weeks for a laptop when Joe gets his macbook that day. Wonder if Lenovo will be #1 in a few years?

That’s gotta be one exclusive drive bay if it had to come from Hong Kong.

I don’t see how this is UPS fault so before we begin throwing them under the bus perhaps some investigative journalism is in order. If nothing else Brett (or Brad or whomever really is interested in this) should call UPS and find out what UPS has to say about it.

I ship from Hong Kong semi-frequently and this kind of stuff happens. Customs is an evil, but a necessary one at that. When UPS says they have no control, they really don’t. I’ve had perfectly legal shipments confiscated by customs, only to receive an empty box with a ‘come to California to claim your merchandise for $500′ letter.

I’ve ordered a hard drive from Malaysia before, it got held up in US Customs in Alaska (!!) for almost a month. And it’s not necessarily that this stuff is exclusive, but often it’s much cheaper to buy the stuff where it’s made. For the most part, I never have any problems with UPS (knock on wood- I have a package due to come in on monday!)

Yes UPS sucks. After ordering my Fujitsu laptop on 9/13, it finally shipped from Japan on 9/26. It made it through customs in KY and then to DFW in less than 24 hours, but then took five days to get to me from Dallas because they shipped it to Lubbock, then to Mesquite (near Dallas), and finally to Abilene. Abilene to DFW is about a three hour drive with traffic. Yes, I did send a screenshot to Consumerist.

I’m not real fond of UPS myself, had too many times where they thought my packages were footballs rather than delicate electronics. Not to mention the numerous times when they said they attempted to deliver and never did.

Train derailment, inspections for VAT shipment just over the border to canada costing $40 on a $20 item that had already cost $15 to ship!, 4 packages that are exactly the same all going to one spot outside chicago… they are all there one minute and the next one is on its way to WA state?!

The list barely starts there…. not to mention $10 to ship a package the size of a dvd 2 hours from my house via ground.